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Denied

The Board denied the veteran's claim of entitlement to service connection for hypertension, finding that it was not caused by or aggravated by his service-connected diabetes mellitus. The issue of whether new and material evidence has been received sufficient to reopen a claim of entitlement to service connection for a psychiatric disorder, to include PTSD, is referred back to the RO.

The deciding factor: The August 2006 VA examination report concluded that it was less likely than not that the veteran's hypertension was secondary to his service-connected diabetes mellitus since there was no evidence of diabetic nephropathy or diabetic renal insufficiency. The examiner opined that secondary hypertension caused by diabetes usually developed in patients who had diabetic renal disease and there was no clinical evidence the veteran suffered from such.

Claimed conditions
Hypertension
How they argued it
Secondary to another service-connected condition
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
January 16, 2008
Citation
0801710

This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0801710.

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